Writer

Category Archives: What I’m reading

Everyone raves about Ancillary Justice. Everyone is right: it is a great read. In recent years I’ve rarely been able to finish reading science fiction novels. I had no troubling finishing Ancillary Justice, which gripped me from the first page.

As a side benefit, this book promotes awareness of how to spell the word “ancillary.”

I just finished Paul Malmont’s 2007 novel, The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril. Loads of fun. An homage to pulp history. Especially interesting to writers in its discussion of the writing process and science fiction history.

Absolutely marvelous. I loved it even more than Parker’s similar 2010 story “A Small Price to Pay for Birdsong,” which also touches on issues of academic rivalry and dishonesty.

“Let Maps to Others” reminded me of two books I’ve recently read and can recommend without reservation. First, non-fiction: Greenblatt’s recent The Swerve on the subject of manuscripts. Second, Galbraith’s 2001 The Rising Sun, a novel set in the real-life historical episode of the attempted Scottish settlement of Panama. Indeed, I can’t help but wonder whether Parker was influenced by Galbraith’s book.

Nice lyrical opening and the intriguing science fictional idea (distantly related to the disturbing “The Screwfly Solution”, 1977, Sheldon). It was also cool that she kept things ambiguous (possible unreliable narrator). And the use of Omni POV was quite effective (in the part about of waitress/boyfriend).

Last week I reread The Moving Toyshop (1946) by Edmund Crispin, one of a series of mystery novels featuring Gervase Fen, the eccentric detective and Oxford don. Literate, funny, and highly entertaining.

It was interesting to reread this with my writer’s eye, only newly-acquired. This time around, I noticed Crispin’s POV shifts and other tricks.

My favorite book by Crispin is Buried for Pleasure. Hilarious. The book has a mood and flow that really come together, with never a false note. Scene after scene hits the mark, with high points including the testimony of the “mullocking” couple, Fen’s speech to his political meeting, and the memorable and mellow final scene. They don’t write books like this anymore.